Overclocking i5 2500K - CPU cooling options?

LittleGreyCat

LittleGreyCat

LittleGreyCat

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Gradually firming up my i5 2500K configuration.

I was wondering if anyone had some guidelines as to CPU cooling and how far you could overclock for how much money (assuming your case and fans can dump the heat)?

Just seen another response which said a Gelid Tranquillo was good for mild to medium overclock.

So on a scale of expected GHz for each cooler/cost level.

(1) Stock cooler - free - ?GHz
(2) Gelid Tranquillo - £31 including shipping - ?GHz
(3) ?

There must, I assume, be a 'sweet spot' where you get the best mix of cooling power and cost.

Cheers

LGC

*********** For those starting at the top and skipping the middle :-) the target is now to find a cooler which is 135mm high or less *****************
 
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Thermalright Venomous X - £42
Thermalright Silver Arrow - £54
Noctua D14 - £73
Phanteks Phanteks PH-TC14PE - £80

Depends how many volts your chip needs really, every chip is different meaning some run hotter than others so there's not really much point in saying what overclock you're going to get out of each.

Venomous is a fair bit better than the tranquillo and isn't that far off the others which is great for the price considering all of the other 3 are as good as it gets without going for a full on water cooling set up which is much much more expensive.

Silver Arrow and Noctua D14 perform pretty much identical and are likely more cooling than you'll ever need unless going for 5ghz, chances are your chip would top out at 4.5 - 4.8 though unless very lucky or very unlucky. The Phanteks is a couple of degrees C better than both of those, but a bit overkill at that price compared to the SA imo.

I went for the SA and am sitting at 4.8 and get around 71C load under IBT but i guess for most people the tranquillo or venomous would be fine.
 
Gelid is my personal sweet spot recomendation for performance and bang for buck around the £25 mark.

But if you can afford it, and your memory isn't high profile, the the Silver Arrow is a fantastic premium cooler for the money. I too own one and can highly recommend it - temps never go above 60 degrees (my clock and voltages differ from above - which explains the contrast.)
 
If you are going to get a Silver Arrow (or NH D14), dont forget to check that you case is deep enough. Looking at the spec I thought mine would be fine but it still touches the side panel and i had to put the side case fan on the outside. Also make sure you buy low profile RAM, not Corsair Vengeance for example.
 
RichH makes a valid point - especially as the SA can even be larger than its advertised spec of 160mm.

A couple of images:

july2011114.jpg


july2011093.jpg


These show it at 166mm but one of the heat pipes was closer to 168mm - so average of 167mm.
 
Gulp!
A lot different from the image on the web site!
The fans must be huge, as well.

If I am reading the dimensions correctly then the Tranquillo is a bit smaller.
74 x 125 x 153mm (L x W x H)
vs
Length 147mm x Width 123mm x Height 160mm

Both are quite high - I am aiming for a high profile HTPC case and an ATX board so I'd better firm up the case PDQ.
 
LittleGreyCat said:
Gulp!
A lot different from the image on the web site!
The fans must be huge, as well.
Click to expand...

To give you an idea of size/space in a averaged sized midi-tower.

These pics were taken before i had got my hands on the compressed air and tidied up cables...

july2011118.jpg


july2011119.jpg
 
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Thanks - I could have got myself in a tangle there.

I now have to look for an HTPC case with enough headroom (thread on Case Central) or a CPU cooler with a maximum height of 135mm or less to fit a Silverstone LC17 case.

Anyone know of a low, mean and very cool cooler?;)
 
celliott said:
Out of stock but I have one of these:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-044-ZA

Very quiet, comes with a little fan controller you can stick inside your case with a sticky pad.

Keeps my 2500K at 4.6Ghz 24x7 quite happily. This is in a Fractal Define R2 case with only the original fans (1 front, 1 back, lowest speed)
Click to expand...

However it is 160mm high - same height as the Silver Arrow pictured up thread; and the Fractal Design R2 is a tower case.

I am trying to do two things in tandem:
(1) Find a low profile cooler in this forum
(2) Find a high profile HTPC case in case central

So for this forum the target is a really good CPU cooler which is less than 135mm high.:D

Cheers

LGC
 
You might find this link helpful in finding one http://www.frostytech.com/top5_lowprofile_heatsinks.cfm

It lists the lower profile coolers and ranks them by temperature and noise. Not sure how accurate their rankings are but at least it tells you the height of them and gives you rough guide to start researching each one a little more.

Edit - Note that not all of them fit socket 1155/6, click on them in the lists to see which ones they support and their specs.
 
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Zalman CNPS10x Performa - £24

Temps/ GHZ - I run at [email protected] 24/7 and temps never hit more than 39, I dont really game though, waiting for my new gpu for I try anything demanding.
8 hours of prime hits 71 max.
I did have it at [email protected] before and 4 hours of prime hit 76.

Ambient temps were about 23 and all 4 fans on min (about 600rpm)
 
Thanks for all the replies so far.
Wierdly, I seem to be getting cooler advice in the case forum and case advice here but no worries; we are getting there :-)

Just found Thermalright MST-140 (Google doesn't show a UK supplier) and XAP-140 RT (which seems to have 6 heat pipes to the MST-140s 4, but be much the same) which is around £45.

Off to chase the latest links now.
 
Noctua NH-C14 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-014-NC&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

Gets cracking reviews and can be used as low as 105mm if you don't use the top fan. Seems to be the D14/Silver arrow for HTPC's. Not sure on the thickness of the fans but i imagine using the top would would bring it to 137mm - 143mm, but it seems to perform great with just the bottom fan going by the reviews.

Pricey though.

Reviews http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/noctua_nhc14_review/
http://www.guru3d.com/article/noctua-nhc14-cpu-cooler-review/
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Noctua/NH-C14/
 
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